Tornado-ravaged community to be searched twice more
3:00 pm Update: MOORE, Okla. (AP) – The fire chief in the Oklahoma City suburb raked by a massive tornado says the search for survivors and the dead is almost complete.
Fire Chief Gary Bird said Tuesday that he’s “98 percent sure” there are no more survivors or bodies to recover under the rubble in Moore.
Bird says every damaged home has been searched at least once, and that his goal is to conduct three searches of each location just to be sure.
He’s hopeful the work could be completed by nightfall, though heavy rains have slowed efforts and soaked debris piles.
Bird says no additional survivors or bodies have been found since Monday night.
Monday’s tornado flattened homes and demolished an elementary school. At least 24 people were killed, including at least nine children. ORIGINAL STORY: MOORE, Okla. (AP) – The fire chief in Moore, Okla., says crews will search the entire community at least twice more to make sure that no survivors or victims have been overlooked.
New search and rescue teams moved in at dawn today, taking over from the 200 or so emergency responders who had worked all night, looking through blocks of homes and other structures that were destroyed by yesterday’s massive tornado.
At least 24 people were killed, including at least nine children, and those numbers are expected to climb.
Authorities initially said as many as 51 people were dead.
Some of the search-and-rescue teams have been focusing their efforts on an elementary school where the storm ripped off the roof, knocked down walls and turned the playground into a mass of twisted plastic and metal, as students and teachers huddled in hallways and bathrooms. Children from the school are among the dead, but several students were pulled alive from under a collapsed wall and other debris.
The fire chief says officials are still trying to account for a handful of children who weren’t found at the school but may have gone home early with their parents.
